The dreaded microstutter

[shawsy109]

So I have had my crossfire set up for a week now, today is the first time i have had it, noticed it during a really long session of bf3, about 4 hours play (sad i know lol)

Never happened before until now, i have 12.6 installed. You think it might be a one off? its funny, it was only on Caspian border, Firestorm was fine.

Felt really down hearted as I have only had xfire for a week, this was supposed to do me for about a year. Cant live with the stutter i just had, done my head, and eyes in.

 

[shawsy109]

its sitting around 75, when the action gets thick it lowers to about 58, highest ive had is about 120.

 

[shawsy109]

I think the whole microstutter thing is just down to low FPS. When you say 58 that's 29fps per GPU roughly and at that framerate I would count a game to be unplayable.

CF/SLI is mainly about pumping out as many FPS as possible im my opinion so i'd say lower something to make it smoother.

I literally just read a thread on here from way back, it said the same thing, the cards maybe showing 58 fps but like you say a single card is on 29, which is pretty rubbish, hence the stutter.

 

[shawsy109]

From elsewhere with some settings you might want to have a play with:



And remove/change that sig please.

It looks like 67.51kB and an animated gif.

Il try that fix out, ta

 

[shawsy109]

It worked! just jumped back in, tried with the config file, no stutter, removed the file to check, had stutter.

Surveyor, id kiss you if you were sat with me.

 

[shawsy109]

I can arrange that.

Hope he likes big hairy northerners

 

[shawsy109]

Just had 1 hour solid of caspian border, no stutter at all. Well happy now. ty Surveyor

 

[shawsy109]

I would like to offer some alternative advice based on what ive found with crossfire.

Vsync removed microstutter for me. If i turn vsycn off, i get stutter.

I also tested all the render ahead settings when using crossfire using the PerfOverlayVisible 1 command in game.

The best render ahead setting in crossfire that keeps fps spikes to a minimum is 1. So create a user.cfg file and place it in the bf3 folder. You want this in the file

RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 1
Render.DeviceVSyncEnable 1
GameTime.MaxVariableFps 59
renderdevice.forcerenderaheadlimit 1

The fps limit is 1 below 60, this removes any mouse lag. Try my settings and see what you think. I've tested all the methods, this is the best for my crossfire setup.

Good luck soldier.

EDIT

I just see you said surveyors advice worked. I emplore you to try my settings for even better performance.

Il try it now mate, always looking for better performance. Had a game before with the stutter and got killed a few times due to stutter making me aim like a drunken one eyed hooked handed gypsy

 

[shawsy109]

The only way to get rid of it is to switch to team green I'm afraid... their multi-gpu implementation is noticeably better for stutter.

It's still not as good as a single card, but it's close now at least

ATi still have a way to catch up in this department

I would love a new card, but i paid 130 quid for the 2nd 6950 brand new, and the performance except for stutter i had before has been brilliant, i just dont think 350 quid for a 670 or 7970 is worth it when my 2 6950s which i got for dirt plays what i want on ultra with great fps. Nevermind getting 2 new 6x0 or 79x0.

 

[shawsy109]

I understand, it's frustrating... my last ATi cards were a pair of 5770s, almost put me off pc gaming for a while with the stutter

I heard the stories of people saying xfire was horrid, nearly put me off, but the 2nd card popped up at 130 quid and i went for it, more than happy, and now ive eliminated the stutter with LTmatt and surveyors help, im back to being happy. Im going to skip this gen, and probably next gen, maybe see what Q3 or Q4 of next year brings gpu wise.

 

[shawsy109]

You're welcome.

It was a quick fix and if you can get even better perfomance with LtMatt's tweaks then all to the good.

Not tried LTmatts yet but will later tonight. Im so glad it worked, felt really crest fallen when i had it, im 30 and it sounds silly but i was actually really gutted, like a kid with his sweets taken away. The whole rig is complete now, i know the 6950 is older gen gpu, but it works you know? why change it and spend more on something i dont need like a 7970 or 670/680

 

[shawsy109]

It's an accepted fact amongst most that nvidia SLI does a better job at avoiding micro stutter than Xfire. Don't have a specific source but spending years over internet forums has shown that to be the case beyond any doubt at all.

Same as the old "AMD can't make drivers" (or ATI rather). There's no factual evidence but a shed load of circumstantial and examples if you look around to undeniably show that as being true, in so far as nvidia make substantially better drivers for their graphics cards (won't comment on chipset - they are god damn awful).

I'm not saying "AMD can't make drivers", but that's the feeling if you put it into an exaggerated literal short sentence.

That's so true, I don't have the vocabulary to be able to make that kind of statement, and the previous post of yours also. All very correct in my opinion.

 

[shawsy109]

How did you get on with those settings shawsy?

I tried yours, and its fine, smooth as silk on caspian border which is were the stutter was, funny it was the only map i get it on. All good now though thnx.

 

[shawsy109]

I'm big in every way my friend.

screenshot or it didnt happen.

 

[shawsy109]

limit the game to 60fps.

I did that Locky, it still stuttered. I made a cfg file as Surveyor suggested, then used LTmatts suggestion, both worked, still using LTmatts.

I wasn't expecting anyone to call my bluff!

Im waiting big boy

 

[shawsy109]

I let my microstutter advice do the talking.